If you love reading, you’ve probably wondered how to write a book. Maybe you’ve been thinking about different ideas for writing a story for years, just like your favorite writers. you may even have several notebooks and journals full of interesting stories that you don’t dare to publish.
Although writing a book is not easy, this does not mean that it is impossible. Moreover, if you have the determination and commitment to reach J.K. Rowling’s level, we are sure that learning how to write a book will be a more bearable process for you.
Of course, quite apart from the will you must have to write a text, there are some tips for writing a book that every beginning writer should know. In total, there are 10 infallible tips that you can’t miss if you want to create a best seller, and each one of them will be presented to you here.
As if that weren’t enough, you’ll also find a list of the most common mistakes writers make when writing their first book in the final section of this article. So, after reviewing them, you’ll be ready to write a successful book.
So, stop procrastinating, it’s time to get started!
why write a book?
The reasons for learning how to write a book are innumerable. In fact, they vary from writer to writer, because every artist’s mind is different. However, one of the main reasons to start writing a book is to share some idea, story or philosophy with others, just as a singer does with music.
Now, if you are here to find out how to write your first book, it is normal to have fears and insecurities before you start. Nerves are part of the journey, as even the most famous writers had to fight them in their beginnings.
Learn without limits and reach your best version of yourself
Try it for free
To address those limitations, the key is to leave excuses aside and venture into writing a book with the following reasons in mind:
Writing a book is your legacy to the world
People love to discover new writers with amazing stories
It elevates your personal brand and positions you for better opportunities
You’ll learn new things along the way
You’ll discover what you’re most passionate about: writing
As you can see, from the creative journey of writing a book, you can discover your passions, connect with yourself and also with people who share your hobbies.
All in all, we hope you’re encouraged and ready to make a best seller after learning how to write a book with the tips you’ll see below. let’s keep going!
Image: Pexels
Tips for writing your first book
Now that you know why writing a book is a very good idea for any book lover, it’s time for you to know some guidelines to learn how to write a book step by step.
To do this, we will share with you 10 tips for writing a book that you should internalize very well before grabbing your notebook and start writing. Rest assured that if you follow these steps to write a book, this creative experience will be much more enjoyable.
1. Find the right place to create
Let’s start with one of the tips that many writers do not talk about, however, it is fundamental to understand how to write a book from scratch.
Especially at the beginning, placing yourself in a place free of distractions will not only stimulate your creativity, but it will also prevent you from losing the linkage of ideas when developing the plot of the story. remember that, when writing a book, you should make sure that all the parts are coherent with each other.
Once you have more experience, or have clearly defined each part of your story, we are sure that you will be able to write a book from anywhere.
Image: Pexels
2. Choose a genre you know well
The second tip for learning how to write a book is important for two reasons.
The first is that, during the process of writing a book, it will be easier for you to move forward if you know the genre you want to do, since you will have a notion of the structure and elements that make it up.
In addition, knowledge of a particular genre is very helpful, because, having read other books, you know where you can get inspiration and references. undoubtedly, with this advice for writing a book, you will be able to save time and feel more comfortable with what you write in your drafts.
The second reason is that the more you know about a particular genre of book, the more you know about the reading public. But does that really help? of course it does! In fact, understanding your audience is key to getting started writing a book.
Remember that copies of your books will end up in front of the biggest fans of that genre. Therefore, knowing what your audience likes will help you a lot during the process of writing a successful book.
3. Brainstorm ideas to find the perfect subject matter
Formulating ideas for writing a book is very challenging. Hence, the third tip on how to write a book.
According to American writer Jerry Jenkins, the idea you choose to write a book should be one that you are passionate about. This way, you will not lack motivation to move forward with your literary project every day.
Precisely, one of the main reasons why people do not finish writing a book is because the idea they chose was not the right one to build several pages of it.
Now, how can you know if the ideas for writing a book that go through your mind are the best ones? First of all, we recommend you to brainstorm ideas to evaluate the value of each topic, so that, by choosing the right one to write a book, you will be sure that the plot will be successful.
Also, we advise you to ask the people closest to you if they think that idea is amazing. Similarly, you can do the following exercise: imagine which characters are born from that idea and how each of them develops. If you notice that you have material to elaborate that story, you have found the ideal topic to start writing your book!
Image: Pexels
4. Make an outline of your book
The fourth tip of our guide will help you a lot to guide you in the process of how to write a book. Therefore, pay attention to the following lines.
Before writing a book, it is essential that you have defined what your story will be about, that is, not only do you need to decide what the genre of the book will be, but you must also keep in mind the central points of the plot and the story of the characters.
The following questions will help you define the outline for writing a book:
who are the main characters?
what are the characteristics of the characters and what is their personality like?
what is the purpose of each character in the story?
what do you want to tell?
how will you tell the story?
what will be the conflict in the story?
what will be the ending of your main characters?
what lesson do you want to teach your readers?
In short, making an outline with the most important information of the story will help you organize your ideas so you don’t lose track of the plot and understand how to write a book in a simpler way.
5. Divide the process of writing a book into small tasks
When a person perceives that the road to achieve his goals is long and requires a lot of patience, he will probably give up if he does not know how to organize himself. This scenario also applies to writing a book, since the process is not easy and does not happen immediately.
Therefore, if you want to finish writing your book and not give up along the way, you must understand that human beings love small achievements, since this dynamic is crucial to avoid becoming demotivated.
But, how to write a book without getting overwhelmed as time goes by? Very simple: organize yourself in such a way that you can create small tasks to move forward with the process of writing a book on a daily basis .
To do this, define how many pages the book should have, set small daily, weekly or biweekly goals. For example, the most popular technique for writing a book among some writers is to set an approximate number of words to write per day.
Don’t forget that you must be accountable for the commitment you make to yourself to write a book. Download this schedule of personal activities to fulfill your project of how to write a book in the most agile and efficient way.
Image: Pexels
6. Set a deadline to finish writing a book
Another tip that will help you answer the question of how to write a book is to set a start and end date for your project. Sometimes, by seeking perfectionism when writing a book, you can make the mistake of extending the time to finish it.
Therefore, when it comes to starting to write a book, it is important to get organized, with the help of a calendar, and set a realistic date by which you plan to finish. By doing so, you will be pushing yourself to meet the agreed-upon deadline and bring your masterpiece to life.
Also, if you later wish to publish a book with a publishing house, you should know that deadlines can be very cruel if you are not disciplined with your time. So, this will be a previous exercise to get used to the demands of the market.
7. Ask for feedback from friends, family or acquaintances
To learn how to write a successful book, it is important to receive feedback from people before finishing your work. Following this recommendation for writing a book is essential to know the strengths and weaknesses of the story.
According to Jeff Goins, American writer, if you want to write a book that tells an entertaining and congruent story, it is essential to seek opinions that help you discern between what is worth keeping in the plot and what does not generate value.
This is a trick for writing a book that can help you with any of your acquaintances, whether they are friends, family or a specialized editor. Of course, you have to be sure that each of them will give you honest feedback. Otherwise, this process will not be effective.
Image: Pexels
8. Come up with an amazing start
Well, as part of the sixth tip on how to write a book, you must answer the following question: do you want your readers to read your book and finish it to the end? The path to achieving this may be a little more complicated than it seems, but, in reality, it all depends on your first steps.
In other words, if you want to be successful when you start writing a book, make sure that the beginning is impressive, so that it hooks the audience instantly. It is important that you are direct and clear with what you want to convey. For example, you can start your story with a surprising event such as a murder, a big robbery or a sudden death.
Another technique for writing a book that can engage your audience is to tell the end of the story from the beginning. then, throughout the book, you can guide the reader to discover what happened to lead up to that ending. Many books and movies have achieved great success with this strategy.
But no matter what engaging strategy you use to write a book, remember that the goal is for readers to connect with your great work. To do this, I recommend reading the best books for writers-in-training that you can consult during your literary writing process.
Image: Pexels
9. Create a writing habit
As people, we struggle to create good habits in our lives. But, as we mentioned earlier, if you aspire to be a successful writer, one very important quality is discipline.
So, one of the answers to the question of how to write a book is a lot of discipline and perseverance .
Now, how to develop a writing habit? Here are some ideas that you can put into practice every day to start writing a book.
Write every day at the same time
Keep your writing space defined
Put mail and social networks aside
Do exercises against writer’s block
We know that creating a habit can be challenging, however, if one of your biggest goals right now is to start writing a successful book, rest assured that investing a few hours in this process will be worth it.
10. Use a book writing program
Finally, you should know that you will find it easier to write a book with a writing program. Although Word is very helpful for writing or editing books, this program does not offer as many tools as other software.
However, there are programs that offer interesting features that will be useful when writing a book.
Therefore, if you want to be more organized and publish a successful book in the future, it is necessary that you work with specialized programs for writing books. Besides, you will look like a great writer in front of many publishers.
So, how to write a book just like a best seller? Simple: with one of these book writing applications, from which you can choose the one that best suits your needs. Take advantage of these tools to write a book today.
Image: Pexels
6 mistakes to avoid when writing a book
After learning about how to write a book, are you encouraged to learn about the most common mistakes that every beginning writer usually makes?
If this is your first time learning how to write a book, it is normal to make some mistakes. Of course, it is best to know what these mistakes are so that your creative process goes more smoothly and you don’t take so long to finish your final work .
Let’s learn what you should not do when writing a book:
1. Develop the plot slowly
As we mentioned before, the first chapter of your book is one of the most important points to succeed.
So, don’t start without a hook that surprises at first sight, and don’t tell the story little by little. It is advisable to include interesting and attention-grabbing information from the beginning.
This will be a big step in writing a successful book.
2. Be very detailed with your story
One of the techniques for writing a book that is very popular among experts is to describe the context of the story, the climate, the characters and the places where the events of the plot take place.
However, what cannot happen is that you write one or two pages describing every detail, because that will bore your readers and they will probably not finish the book .
Image: Pexels
3. Follow the fashions of the moment
Don’t get carried away with the current book fad. First of all, if you choose a topic you are not passionate about, you will most likely develop the famous writer’s block as you start writing the book .
Second, when fads emerge, they are fleeting and other writers copy them as well. When writing a book, it is recommended that you stand out by presenting stories and elements that are different from the pre-established ones.
4. Not paying attention to spelling
avoid spelling mistakes! Spelling is crucial to ensure the success of a book, so misspelled words should not be in your book. Otherwise, they will act as a major distraction when it comes to following the thread of the story .
In addition, poor spelling reduces the quality of what you have written in the book. So, what do you need to write a successful book? Undoubtedly, you should go through some spelling guidelines to understand how to structure each part of your writing.
Basic spelling guide to improve your writing
Write correctly using this basic spelling guide.
Download
5. Abundance of clichés
Along with misspellings, you should avoid all kinds of clichés when writing a book, so avoid mentioning too many phrases that are always repeated in other books or movies. To do so, avoid mentioning too many phrases that are always repeated in other books or movies, and keep a list of synonyms of words or adjectives at hand to supply the narration of the story.
Writing a book while staying away from clichés is ideal for crafting a story that is not predictable, yet stimulates the reader’s imagination page after page.
6. Throwing away drafts of your texts
Majo Moirón, writer and professor at Crehana, tells us that discarding drafts of a book is very common among writers. However, the expert affirms that every sentence that comes out of this creative process can be useful at some point .
Therefore, Majo recommends keeping in a folder all the ideas, paragraphs or sentences that are born at the moment of creating the story, since all these elements can be accommodated throughout the narrative. Remember that the process of writing a book is long and can evolve over time.
Finally, the writer tells us that “this process helps us to believe in our ideas and value what we do”. If you want to learn more, Majo will tell you all the techniques to write a successful book in her course on the art of writing.
Image: Pexels
After learning about how to write a book through these tips, it’s time to apply everything you’ve learned. Therefore, we encourage you to fulfill your dream of making the publication of your first book a reality.
Remember that everything is a matter of discipline and perseverance, although it is always necessary to keep learning to discover new techniques for writing a book. For this reason, you can’t miss our catalog of writing courses.
good luck!